


Immortality

by KivaEmber



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Gore, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 11:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the span of a minute, Hibiki learns that the world is terrible and cruel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortality

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on tumblr a while ago, but I may as well toss it up here. There're probably a million and one SnK crossovers by now, but oh well. Just a request oneshot for a friend who wanted Yamato to be killed by a Titan, so it's a single scene. I may try to do a proper crossover one day. 
> 
> One daaaaaaaaaay~

Hibiki was going to vibrate out of his skin, his heart beating rapid tattoos against his ribs. Excitement. It felt sort of wrong, to be excited about something like this, but it would be his first real  _battle_  – no simulations, no training, no pretending – a  _real_ battle. A terrifying battle. An exciting battle. He could foresee the victory in his mind’s eye, the happiness of being  _useful_  and defending his friends from this hideous threat. The thought of dying didn’t even cross his mind. Just winning.

Abruptly, a fist smashed into the back of Hibiki’s head, and he yelped, gripping at the pained spot with a quiet whimper. Ugh,  _ow_ -!

“Stop bouncing. This isn’t a game.”

“Ahh… I know… ow…” Hibiki grumbled, dropping his hand to swivel a sulky look at his assailant. Yamato just stared back at him impassively; his face cold and eerily blank. Hibiki hadn’t seen him emote even once, not even in sparring matches or times of frustration. It made others dislike him – well, that, or Yamato’s rude, vicious nature did.

But despite that dislike, Yamato was still powerful in terms of skill, strength, and presence. People couldn’t help but bend to his will, and Hibiki admitted that in a tight situation, he would leap through fire if Yamato ordered it, if only because his plans always ended up turning out okay in the end, no matter how crazy they sounded at the time.

“Is there something on my face?” Yamato asked him, his head tilting a fraction to the left. Hibiki stuck out his tongue and looked away.

“Our first fight and you look like you’re waiting in line to take a shit.”

“Crude,” Yamato chastised.

“Kuze,” his other team mate sighed – Makoto. She was a woman who took no nonsense from anyone, and could kick Hibiki’s ass all over Trost with both hands tied behind her back. A prodigy in everything, really.

“Well, he does!” Hibiki huffed, pointing rudely at Yamato’s face. “You blow a cannon near his face and he won’t even twitch!”

“I would die,” Yamato deadpanned.

“So yo-”

Hibiki was cut off by a booming noise, and the three of them turned from their position on the rooftop to see smoke rising up a few streets from the breached wall. Hibiki felt energy thrum through his muscles, and he bounced on the balls of his feet in agitation. The front guard were where the elite titan killers were – the middle guard had most of the trainees caught in the sudden invasion, and the rear had a mix of trainee and elites. He found himself thinking about his other friends, suddenly.

It dulled his excitement, and he swallowed a bit thickly, dropping his hand to press against the hilt of his blade to give him something to fidget with.

“Speak of the devil…” Yamato muttered. “Those are the cannons. The titans will engage us here soon.”

Hibiki ignored those ominous words, turning around to peer over to where the rear guards where. Io and Daichi were back there, somewhere… hopefully they would stay out of harm’s way, since they were just making sure the civilians wouldn’t be gobbled up by titans, but…

“Kuze!”

Hibiki whirled round at Makoto’s shout, and he gasped at the sight before him. A large titan, a fifteen metre class, was suddenly lumbering out into the street leading up to the building they were perched on. There was blood smeared on its chin, and its grin looked nauseatingly chilling.

Hibiki’s heart was going to burst – fear, anticipation, excitement, he didn’t know what from. It was his first time seeing a titan up close, and it was… it was something. They looked so alien, yet their faces so human looking. It was massive too. It was… Hibiki felt like a mouse armed with toothpicks, but he shrugged off the sudden cold flush of fear and started forwards.

He heard Makoto and Yamato follow him a heartbeat later, and although he and Yamato butted heads a lot – about this and that and everything else – they knew how to coordinate around each other. It was odd – but when you fought against someone so much, you knew how they would react in certain situations and… teamwork with your biggest rival was normally perfect.

Swinging through the air, Hibiki felt like he was dancing through the sky, nimbly evading the titan’s lightning quick, yet clumsy, grabs and swats. Hibiki was quick and lithe, he was best at acting as the bait or distraction, if only because he could pull amazing acrobatic feats in order to evade things. Makoto was his back up, helping split the share of distraction, and Yamato… well Yamato was just impossible. If Hibiki didn’t know any better, he would say Yamato could teleport.  

As it was, their battle took all of fifty seconds. A horrifying, terrifying, wild fifty seconds. Hibiki’s world had been filled with blurs and heavy breathing and sweat pouring off of his face as he dodged death inch by narrow inch. One wrong move, and Hibiki knew he would be crushed against the wall, or the floor, or have his head snapped off. One wrong move, and Hibiki would be a very dead human. It was exciting. It was  _exciting_.

By the time the battle ended with Yamato’s swords finding the titan’s neck, Hibiki felt like he could breathe fire when they settled on the roof overlooking the rapidly decomposing corpse. He let out a whoop of victory, and jumped up the sloping tiles like a young child. Makoto called an admonishment to his retreating back, but Hibiki ignored it, standing up high on the roof with a bright, beaming grin.  

Young and powerful, that’s what Hibiki felt like. Immortal.

“That wasn’t so hard,” Hibiki said, shielding his eyes as he scanned for their next target. He could hear the scrape of boots against tile, Yamato and Makoto walking up the roof towards him. “We make a great team, huh?”

“Don’t get cocky,” Makoto warned. “It only takes a single miscalculation to be caught.”

“I know, I know,” Hibiki turned back to her, flashing a smile. “But we can celebrate right? Oh, hey, how about after this, we go out for drinks together? You too,” he shot at Yamato.

“Kuze, you and Yamato are still underaged…” Makoto clucked, but there was a small, exasperated smile on her lips. Hibiki knew he had her, and just waggled his eyebrows at her ridiculously. The smile twitched wider.  

Yamato, however, looked puzzled. “Makoto is correct; no one would serve us alcohol.”

“I have my ways,” Hibiki said, pressing a hand atop of his blade carrier with a sly grin, “Trust me. After we fix up the wall and clean out all the giants, we’ll have a big ol’ party with everyone else. It can be a last hurrah before we all split up.”

“…” Yamato was giving him a peculiar stare, like Hibiki was an interesting specimen waiting to be cut open. “You say that as if everyone will survive.”

There was a brief, cold silence, and Hibiki turned away with a nervous laugh. “Well, of course…”

“Mortality rate when engaging titans is ninety per cent,” Yamato said, “It’s statistically impossible.”

“It is if you’re being a Negative Nancy about it,” Hibiki said a bit sharper than he intended. Yamato’s face was impassive, and Hibiki had to turn away from the cold, level stare. He knew his hope was dumb, but he was riding high on the immortality of youth. None of them could die. It just wouldn’t register properly in his brain. Everyone would live… yeah, that earlier titan fell no problem, and it was a fifteen metre class! If all of them were as easy as that…

Hibiki’s eyes landed on a titan meandering up a nearby street, and he huffed, moving forward in a sudden sprint. Makoto shouted, but Hibiki ignored her. They could do this. If they did their job, not many titans would get to the rear guard as well, so Daichi and Io would definitely live if they didn’t engage in any enemies…!

He leapt from the rooftop, expecting Yamato and Makoto to be on his heels, his eyes intent on the far off titan. It was a large one, fifteen metre class, with a bulky torso and scrawny arms – manoeuvring around it would be difficult-

It was when Hibiki’s feet landed on the other roof that he heard Makoto scream his name. He only had a split second of confusion before something slammed only inches away from him, blasting him backwards from the concussive force and off the roof entirely. His world slowed. In mid-air, his spine arched almost painfully and head spinning, Hibiki saw a titan crouched down in the street below him, mouth opened wide.

Oh.

Hibiki stared. Time was stopped for him.

Oh.

He didn’t see that one.

The titan lurched upwards in a sudden movement, like a snake, and Hibiki couldn’t get away in time –even though his mind was working so fast it was like everything was in slow motion, Hibiki knew – he couldn’t move in time. By the time he managed to shoot out a barb into a nearby wall to swing away it would be too late, it would be too late, it _was_  too late, oh, fucking

“-god-” Hibiki whispered, and time abruptly sped up. Just as the titan’s jaws were about to close tight around him - something heavy smashed into him, sending him cartwheeling through the air in a sick blur of motion and gravity. What happened next was-

There was a scream, a horrible horrible horrible scream and a squelch and crunch like someone was ripping a turkey leg off a roast and  _bam_  Hibiki hit the pavement rolling, his shoulder snapping under the force. He screamed, his vision blinding white from agony. It hurt it hurt it hurt and each roll made the broken bones grind and crunch together until he – stopped.

Hibiki fought the rising nausea, face pressed into the pavement and body shuddering from overwhelming pain. Chaos was screeching – something was screeching. The world was trembling and shuddering, and there was someone shouting, voice high and raw with grief and anguish and – Makoto. Hibiki realised it was Makoto, and…

He forced himself up onto his knees, sucking in a deep breath as his vision blurred. A broken shoulder. That was okay. That was good. Broken bones were fixable. A ripped off arm or leg was something different. How did he – who-

Hibiki’s eyes fell further up the street. The titan was collapsing towards the earth, Makoto riding on its back downwards, but, no, it wasn’t that. It was the space between Hibiki and the falling titan. It was…

He wasn’t sure what he was looking at, at first. Red. Red he noticed. A great thick puddle of red that seeped into the cobblestones of the pavement. Then he realised the red was all lumpy. There were lumpy chunks in the red, like globs of meat. A butcher shop, Hibiki suddenly thought. It was like looking at the offal on display from a butcher’s shop.

Hibiki slowly got up to his feet. He felt detached from his body. The chaos and shouting and screaming came from a thousand miles away. He walked. Even the pain in his shoulder was suddenly dim. He walked. He walked until his boot splashed into the thick red puddle, and he was standing over the source of it.

Yamato stared up at him, his eyes half open and unfocused, his lips parted with red oozing from the corners. His entire chin was red, and it was staining into the collar of his uniform, and Hibiki just stared at him without comprehension for a long moment. Yamato made a noise, like an animal, and chest shuddering from a hard wheeze, and it snapped Hibiki out of his spell.

Oh.

Oh.

Ooh. Oh.

“Oh- god… oh god…” Hibiki fell to his knees, reaching out as if to touch, but stopped, his hand trembling. Oh god. Red. Blood. Blood. Yamato was bleeding, he could feel the warmth seeping into the fabric of his trousers. Oh god. Those lumps. Those were – those were- organs. Yamato’s organs were spilt out onto the street and – oh god.

“…iibi…” the noise was a quiet gurgle, and Yamato’s eyes rolled back a bit, his pupils dilating until his eyes were almost black. Hibiki just stared at him, his mouth open and lips quivering. He couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at. He didn’t want to. Yamato was bleeding and his organs – his mind refused to go forwards. His eyes refused to accept what they saw.

“It’s…” Hibiki’s voice came out as a croak, “It’ll be… okay… it’s not, it’s not that bad… okay? It’ll be…”

He heard boots scraping against stone, and he slowly turned his head to see Makoto walking towards them. She was pale, alarmingly so, and her entire body was shaking as she stared at Yamato. Hibiki suddenly felt something sour and pained fill his stomach, and he wanted to throw up. He- he-

Hibiki pressed his hand against his mouth, doubling over as he heaved, tasting bile in his mouth. He swallowed it back, swallowed it down, feeling it burn in his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut. If he opened them, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad. Maybe… maybe…!

But he opened them and the sight remained the same. Red. Organs. Yamato prone and unmoving.

“Yamato…” Makoto’s voice was soft, and with a heavy  _thump_ , she was on the opposite side of Hibiki. Her hands were trembling, but she reached out, gently touching Yamato’s hand. Her face was tense, her lips pressed into a quivering line – but her eyes were hard. She looked like she was preparing for a heavy blow, preparing to survive and endure it.

“We won’t leave you alone,” she said. Her voice was strained, and although her eyes were hard, Hibiki could see moisture clinging to her eyelashes. “I’m sorry.”

Hibiki didn’t know who she was saying that to, and he sat there like a statue, staring at her, because he couldn’t bear to look at Yamato. He could hear him breathing though, Yamato, slow and strained and shallow. With each passing second, Yamato became paler and paler until he looked like some sort of spirit, his eyes half-closed and dark.

“…hibiki…”

Hibiki looked down through sheer force of will, unable to swallow down the lump in his throat. Yamato’s lips moved, but no sound came out except something thin and breathy, like a dying wind.

“W-What?” Hibiki whispered, his voice crackling. He couldn’t understand him. There was a roaring in his ears, and his vision too blurry to read Yamato’s lips.

Yamato whispered again, but Hibiki just caught something like ‘stop’ and ‘fight’ and ‘pathetic’. He almost laughed – a high, frantic noise –because even to the end, Yamato would insult him, or admonish him? He – no, this wasn’t happening because…

“We’re supposed to go for drinks later…” Hibiki said before he was consciously aware of it. His entire body was shaking. “We’re supposed to… survive…”

Yamato said nothing. His eyes were staring at him emptily.

“We… you can’t…” Hibiki choked. Makoto gently lowered Yamato’s hand from where she had been holding it, her head bowed. “This isn’t… how it’s meant to go… Yamato, you…”

“Hibiki…” Makoto said quietly.

Hibiki made a noise better suited to a dying animal, and he clutched at his hair. He felt pain, but didn’t. His shoulder crunched from the movement, his scalp ached from the pressure on his hair, but he couldn’t – he couldn’t – Yamato was still staring at him, but the gaze was devoid of anything now. It wasn’t even cold or blank it was just… just, empty. Empty.

“I-I should’ve been the one to…” Hibiki couldn’t breathe. Was it only minutes ago where he had been joking about drinking with him? About cannons? Was it only  _minutes_?! “No, no…”

“ _Hibiki_ ,” Makoto’s hands pressed against his shoulders, and the stab of pain on his broken one jarred him into clarity. He stared at her. His cheeks felt wet, and Makoto’s face was a smear of colour from his blurry vision. But he could see that she was pale. Deathly pale, and her fingers were shaking violently.

“He’s gone, Hibiki,” Makoto said. Her tone was wracked with grief, “He’s… we have to go… it’s dangerous here.”

Go? Hibiki didn’t understand, and his mouth moved soundless for a moment. “We can’t just leave him…”

“They’ll… they’ll pick up his co- …him, later,” Makoto said, giving him a little shake. “Do you think he would want you to sit here and be eaten? We have to…  _Hibiki_ , please…”

Hibiki’s face twisted, but he nodded jerkily, and slowly climbed to his feet. Makoto let go of him, and – and they just… turned around and left. They left Yamato lying in the street, in the puddle of blood and organs, with his eyes staring up emptily at the sky.  

It wasn’t meant to be like that, Hibiki thought hollowly. It wasn’t…

It wasn’t…


End file.
